A moment of madness with our mad Emperor-in-waiting this morning. The PNG Manus Island refugee solution is starting to show major fractures, and on TV Rudd looks as though he’s likely to fall apart at the seams very soon.
Wildly scratching around for some other distraction, he seizes on Tourism New Zealand’s recent competition to be the first homosexual Australian couple married under the NZ Marriage Amendment Act, which comes into force in August. With Gay Marriage still not lawful in Australia, Rudd wants to run something off the back of what the Kiwis have done and get the jump on Abbot and the Coalition. A new policy, he says “From henceforth, all newly-married homos* coming from New Zealand will be arrested at the airport and sent straight to Manus Island. None will be allowed to resettle in Australia.”

Astounded, not sure that I may have heard him right, I suggest that this kind of policy may seem a little too harsh, particularly in the light of his recent back-flip in favour of Gay Marriage. I ask, “wouldn’t it make more sense to send them a bouquet of flowers on their return from NZ to Australia instead? That way we’d get a lot more of the Gay vote, rather than lose it all in one go.”

Suddenly remembering his new public pro-Gay Marriage stance, he reluctantly nods his agreement. “Pity we couldn’t do both, and gain votes from the homos and Coalition combined,” he mutters, and then I really think he’s losing his mind. It’s almost as if he’s no idea where he stands on anything.